Yiren Pontificates

Random stop-and-search procedures are necessary to preserve safety in modern urban neighbourhoods. 

Random stop-and-search procedures typify the belief of ‘prevention is better than cure’ with an inherent implication of ‘never trust anyone’, and has been raised as a possible solution to the raising crime rates in urban neighbourhoods. While safety and security are the top priorities of many, such measures are certainly unnecessary to maintain law and order within modern urban neighbourhoods.

Technological advances in security measures have crept their way into the homes and neighbourhoods in the forms of micro-cameras and sophisticated alarm systems that are directly connected to the local law enforcers. In modern urban neighbourhoods, many have already decorated their homely facade with such gadgets that undoubtedly will act as both a deterrence and a prevention to better preserve safety within the area. Random stop-and-search procedures will also be irrelevant in neighbourhoods with strong communal ties.  

Besides violating the freedom and privacy rights of an individual, stop-and-search procedures are also hardly ever random. These checks, carried out by human law enforcers, are subjective and often serve to further entrench any social stigma on certain groups of individuals. In the award winning film “Crash”, a law enforcer carried out a random stop-and-search procedure on a black couple and sexually assaulted the lady while white people walked about, bringing out the racial tension often associated with ‘random’ checks. Stop-and-search procedures may still find their place in preserving safety in modern urban neighbourhoods but protocols and rules of engagement have to be determined and not leave the ‘randomness’ to the whims-and-fancies of law enforcers.

Perhaps the only time when random stop-and-search procedures may be justified is when nobody can differentiate friends from foes. The US deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq were initially sent to maintain security and safety of the people while the new governments establish and stabilise. Yet they are threatened by small splinter groups of terrorists who take pride in blowing up American soldiers and their innocent fellow countrymen. Random stop-and-search procedures may be the only way to save the lives of many in the neighbourhood and thus the ends justify the means. 

Random stop-and-search procedures are unnecessary, with a few exceptions, to preserve safety within modern urban neighbourhoods  and should not be considered in on the basis of individual human rights.